noshell problem

Hi,
I ma trying to launch an Erlang program in background so that I can close the
terminal and let the server keep on working.
But I encounter some problem with this feature.
Here is what I am doing:
I am launching my Erlang server :
erl -noshell -s sessions start &
=> The programm reach the state stopped and seem to wait for input data.
I also tried to launch my program with -noinput option, but the program
also reach the stopped state.
How do you launch your Erlang programm so that they run in the background (and
so that you can close you terminal) ?
Thank you in advance for your help.
--
Mickaël Rémond